Sunday, September 27, 2015

NEO MARGAM

NEO MARGAM

A fresh look at Bharatanatyam with a Tamil-Malay accent

DBKL auditorium, Kuala Lumpure

September 18, 2015

DIVERCITY KL International Arts Festival

Titles become indicative and
sometimes, problematic. They can either ensnare you in its entrails or push you
to un peel the layers of its meaning. In Bharatanatyam, the word MARGAM has
become flogged once too often. Used as a marker for the traditional, the
classical, the often taught, the much trodden "path" has been
mangled, manipulated and maligned over the past 50 years. Many have tried to
"reinvent" the 'margam'. Most have failed.

So when talented and charismatic
dancer Shankar Kandasamy of Malaysia announced his evening length venture NEO
MARGAM for the DIVERCITY Kuala Lumpur Arts Festival, I had my doubts.

After all, Shankar, along with his
colleague at Temple of Fine Arts (TFA) had already NEO-ed the margam 18 years
ago when they created HAMSAGATI, an intelligent morphing of the Alaruppu and
Jatiswaram template. With beautifully dancers trained in Bharatanatyam,
Odissi, Kathak and contemporary technique, they are like malleable clay and a
choreographer's dream.

So how much more NEO would Shankar take
this full lengh venture? Artistic Director of the festival, Ramli Ibrahim,
himself a national icon in Malaysia, urged Shankar to take his modern accents
into a longer offering, Shankar had many directions in which to take his vision
of Bharatanatyam.

Using new nomenclatures for each of
the five dance pieces - Rhythm Mandala. Off Balance, Monologue, Gossip and
Thrillana, Shankar stayed within the familiar 'margam'
progression to implode the choreography and staging with two main ideas as
catalysts.

INTRA - using Bharatanatyam's kinetic
ability to push each posture and movement into unfamiliar areas and INTER - using the connections between
Bharatanatyam and other dance forms.

The presiding memory of the sound
design became the piano. In selecting this percussion instrument to become the
"bed" of sound to anchor the fluid choreography, Shankar sacrificed
the complex melodic structures of Carnatic music. Off tune singing was a ear
sore but beautiful staging, lovely lighting with eye catching gobos and lithe
dancers pulled the uneven ideas together.

Shankar tried to put the five part
performance in context by walking onto stageat the very beginning in a practice dhoti and taking off his T shirt.
With his back to the audiences, caught in a gentle pool of light, he went
through the contours of his movement vocabulary. He was graceful, light footed
and wonderful to watch. If only he could have extended that moment longer. The
silent magic was rudely punctured with the entry of the slim but over adorned dancers
- bells, jewellery and all.

So what was NEO about this? My mind
began to hunt for answers as the choreography unfolded.However, cynical doubts were temporarily
pushed aside as thethe imaginatively
structured Ganapati Vandana and Alarippu etched a beautiful kinetic diagram.

This was followed by the central idea
of the evening. OFF BALANCE was an 'neo" response to the lovely
Jathiswaram. It was this piece that made the choreographer's vision illuminated
most clearly. Tilting ever so slightly beyond the "natyarambha"
position and falling 'off balance' throughout the choric refrains was both
poetic and arresting.

What followed were three uninspiring
dances.. MONOLOGUE was melodramatic and over articulated - cinema influenced
hysterics seeping into voices trying to SPEAK the first line of the Lalgudi
Jayaraman Tamil 'varnam'in various
ways- much like the "sanchari" exploration of a classical dancer.
Bodies throwing themselves in various directions. Supple yes. But what was the
point?

GOSSIP followed, taking the well known
'pallavi' sections of javalis and padams. None of the 'angika abhinaya' worked.
It became monotonous and repetitive. Again, more flailing of limbs

After having watched a cascade of non
stop movement from ballet, Odissi, contemporary technique, fall and release
training and Bharatanatyam fused together for almost 50 minutes, the final
THRILLANA seemed to be the same old same old.

Not to take away anything from the
brave attempt by both dancers and the choreographer. NEO MARGAM has huge
potential but the idea needs to be more rigorously discussed and Shankar needs
to create some intervals where he puts himself on stage and not handling the
lights. The dancers need a fresh look at costumes and the choreography can
certainly have more variety.

My biggest question was " Where
was the CENTRE of the classical form from which one could be pushed off
centre?" I did not see a single moment of araimandi and the clear lines of
the form in which the blurring or tweaking could then be more enjoyed.

NEO MARGAM is worth watching and this
trajectory of dance design is one way in which classical training can travel.
Shankar Kandasamy has very good ideas and a marvellous company of well trained
young women to mount them on.

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